What is a food forest?
DEFINING A FOOD FOREST
Inspired by permaculture gardening, food forests combine edible landscaping, native plant cultivation, and wildlife biodiversity to nurture low-maintenance, productive ecosystems. Full of edible plants like fruit and berries, food forest plantings tend to attract pest-controlling insects and build healthy soil.
Each plant in a permaculture garden has a specific purpose. Some are used for food and others for medicine. Some attract beneficial insects, while others deter pests. Some improve soil health, while others boost the garden’s beauty. Usually what these plants have in common is that they are perennials — they return year after year without having to be replanted by humans.
An established food forest provides fruit, vegetables, berries and more while increasing the overall health of the land itself. Food forests take a “whole system” approach to land stewardship, increasing environmental health, human health, and community health.
A food forest, also called a forest garden, is a diverse planting of edible plants that attempts to mimic the ecosystems and patterns found in nature. Food forests are three dimensional designs, with life extending in all directions – up, down, and out.
Generally, we recognize seven layers of a forest garden – the over-story, the understory, the shrub layer, the herbaceous layer, the root layer, the ground cover layer, and the vine layer. Some also like to recognize the mycelial layer, layer eight (mushrooms). Using these layers, we can fit more plants in an area without causing failure due to competition.
*Image from ‘Permaculture: A Beginner’s Guide’ by Graham Burnett.
Food Forest design can reduce input in the following ways:
placing emphasis on trees, shrubs, perennials, and self-seeding annuals
planting thickly and using ground covers to shade soil and suppress weeds
utilizing nitrogen-fixing and nutrient-accumulating plants, chop-and-drop techniques, and returning wastes to the land to create healthy soil rather than applying fertilizer
planting a diverse array of plants that attract beneficial insects to pollinate the fruit crops and keep pest populations from exploding and causing damage
utilizing several ground-shaping techniques to keep rain water on the site
designing for placement of plants to create micro-climates and windbreaks